


Exhilarating.

by paleromantic, tylerscreamingintothevoid



Series: Family Ties. [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Competition, F/M, Jealous Babs af, Rivalry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-10
Updated: 2018-01-10
Packaged: 2019-03-03 05:55:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13334871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paleromantic/pseuds/paleromantic, https://archiveofourown.org/users/tylerscreamingintothevoid/pseuds/tylerscreamingintothevoid
Summary: Barbara and Dick compete to see who's better at their jobs.





	Exhilarating.

 

Dick’s basement was his pride and joy, really, and he usually spent a lot of time there. It was quite similar to the Batcave he had grown accustomed to, with some extra Grayson-esque embellishments, which helped to make it both comfortable and more tailored to Dick’s own training needs. The room was large, with steely grey walls and fixtures, and baby blue as a contrast colour. A huge screen took up part of one wall, with a Play Station and a couch near it, along with a minifridge and some blankets. Trapezes hung from the rafters, with Olympic rings attached to a metal frame. Other gymnastic equipment lay around, and further away from the couch was a full assault course, for when Dick was feeling bored. He spent most of his free time training when he wasn’t asleep or crashing on the couch, playing video games. It was, effectively, his own personal Batcave. But that didn’t mean that he didn’t let his friends use his equipment whenever they wanted.

Barbara smirked cockily, throwing her Batarang at the dummy and watching it hit it in the chest, before kicking it across the training mat, towering over it. She quickly put handcuffs on the dummy's plastic hands before straightening up and turning to look at Dick, hands on her hips. “How was that?”

Dick chuckled from his seat on the bench, stretching his back out. “That was great Babs, a little sloppy but nothing you can’t fix with practice.”

She raised an eyebrow, looking pissed. "What did you say about my throwing?"

"It was above average, but you could improve it easily!" Dick smiled at her. “You’re really good at this.”

"Above average? This is exactly how Bruce taught me."

"Maybe he’s losing his touch?" Dick teased lightly, standing up.

Barbara crossed her arms. "What are you trying to say here... that I'm not as good as you when you were Robin?"

"I mean, if you insist." Dick grinned.

"I... disagree." She took a deep breath and glared at him. "Thoroughly."

"Put your money where your mouth is, Gordon. If you’re sure, I mean."

"What are you proposing, Grayson." She put her hands on her hips, approaching him.

Dick stood his ground. "All I was saying was that you could improve your technique!"

"It sounded like you were being condescending." She huffed, and Dick shook his head, laughing. "What?"

"You misinterpreted."

Barbara still looked pissed. "Yeah, okay. I'm still better than you were when you were Robin, though, that's ridiculous."

"You think so?" Dick rolled his eyes and chuckled.

"I know so."

"Sounds like a challenge." Dick shrugged off his hoodie.

"You really wanna see who's better, Grayson?"

"Sounds good, you know I love to show off."

Barbara growled. "Yeah? Showing off what, how your ass looks after getting kicked?"

Dick smirked. "Fighting words, Gordon."

"Damn right they are, Richard."

 

*************************************************************

Bruce was exhausted, after listening to both Barbara and Dick bickering about who was better, and eventually he set up what he called a "Challenge Course".

This was a course designed to definitively prove who, in the end, was the overall "better" of the two.

Barbara was determined, wearing her pink training gear and studying the course carefully. She looked serious, her brows furrowed and her stance firm, practically the opposite of Dick.

Dick was doing stretches, sitting down, looking excited and grinning widely in anticipation of the awaiting challenges.

Barbara, satisfied, started to stretch, and smirked at him. "Alright, Richard. Ready to get your ass handed to you?"

Dick rolled his eyes and stood up, stretching his legs out again. "I could say the same to you, Barb."

"You could. But it'd be untrue. Because you're the one getting... ass... handed?" She grimaced and flushed slightly

Dick snorted. "Good one."

"...Shut up."

"Mmhm." Dick cracked his neck. "Ready?"

Barbara grinned, getting ready to start.

Carrie looked up from her phone, whistle in her mouth.

Dick got in position to start, and them both waited, the tension mounting.

Three… Two… One…

Carrie blew her whistle, allowing them both to begin.

Barbara ran, gaining a good head start and getting to the first obstacle before Dick and easily fighting the training bots that Bruce had set up, beating them all in quick succession, but then slowed down significantly when she got to the gymnastics section of the course.

Dick was a little slower than Barbara at the training bots, but easily completed the gymnastics, grinning smugly.

Barbara struggled, barely getting past the first obstacle. The second one was a wall, and Barbara was just a little too short to reach it. She made a distressed noise, jumping up and trying to pull herself over.

Dick raced ahead before hearing her cry out, stopping and going back for her. Reaching down, he helped her over before running off again.

Barbara ran past him, cocky, but hit her head off a bar and fell, rolling and standing up, rubbing her head. "Fuck!"

Dick laughed and sped ahead, running in long strides.

Barbara caught up, but was too late to surpass him in time, and Dick crossed the finish line with time to spare. He panted, bending over with his hands on his knees.

Barbara whined as she passed the finish line, leaning against the wall. "That wasn't fair, Bruce tailored that to your gymnastic abilities!"

"Bruce tailored the first part to your martial arts experience!"

"You have the same training as I do. Mostly."

"Different strengths. Look, if it’s too difficult for you then we can call it off-" 

"No! Not too difficult! Let's just pick something more fair, and decide on that!"

Dick wiped his mouth and grabbed a bottle of water. "Like what?"

"Why don't we...  just go on a mission, a regular mission, and whoever beats the most thugs wins." Barbara crossed her arms.

Dick grinned. "Sure thing, Barb, sounds fun."

*************************************************

Bruce was sick of this already, but begrudgingly assigned them a task. Two Face and his thugs were hijacking a truck on the highway, and it was up to Batgirl and Nightwing to stop them, and the challenge still stood.

Barbara took her motorcycle, and Dick took his, leaving the base at the same time and catching up to the group of unmarked vans that Two Face's crew had set up. They flanked it, looking at each other and nodding before bracing themselves for action.

Dick, always the show off, jumped off the bike gracefully, sneaking around one of the vans.

Barbara stopped her motorbike, sneaking up and silently taking down a thug, choking him out.

Dick climbed up on the van, dropping down and taking two down at once, piling them against the side.

Barbara smashed two thugs’ heads together, knocking them out at the same time. She quickly turned on her earpiece, voice smug. "Three."

Dick smirked, kicking his fourth. "Four, hot stuff."

Barbara smirked, kicking one and slamming another to the ground, using her batarang to stun another. "Six."

Dick worked harder, clearing as many thugs as he could, counting them off to her as he did it.

Barbara huffed, kicking one down off one of the vans.

"Sixteen."

Dick laughed as he let one fall to the ground. "Sixteen!"

Barbara looked around, they were all taken down, except--

Two-Face himself was attempting to make a break for it, starting up one of the smaller vans.

Dick frowned at the silence, and then widened his eyes, realising what she was planning. "Batgirl, don't-"

He raced over to her to stop her. “Batgirl, no!”

Barbara smirked and grappled onto the van, swinging to it and clinging to the roof, squinting. Using one of her gadgets, she managed to remotely disable the van's engine and stop him from getting away.

Dick went after her, catching up quickly, out of breath.

She glided down, opening the door and pulling Two-Face out, grinning breathlessly.

"Going for sevent- Unf!"

A bullet lodged itself in her shoulder, and Two-Face crawled away from her, leaving her injured on the ground.

"BATGIRL!"

Dick grabbed him, disarming him roughly and punching him in the face, knocking him out. He was panting and dropped the unconscious man on the asphalt.

"Seve... Seventeen." He groaned and stood up, stretching his arm before going over to her, checking her shoulder.

She batted his hand away, whimpering. "I-I'm fine. I warmed him up for you, seventeen, seventeen..."

Dick frowned and reached for her again. "Barb, let me-"

"No, you'll just... be better than me, again." Her eyes were wide and desperate, and Dick looked worried, not touching her.

“Babs…”

She blinked, and then shook her head, leaning over to let Dick do whatever he needed to help her shoulder.

Dick dug the bullet out, cleaning and bandaging the wound neatly, keeping his voice soft. "Hey, are you alright?"

"I'm okay..." She sniffed and sat up, groaning.

Dick helped her up, letting her lean on him.

After a couple steps, he smiled and chuckled. "I guess Batgirl is better, huh. Congrats on the seventeen, although, I guess two face counts as 18. So you practically beat me by two!"

Barbara gripped his shoulder, a weak smile growing on her face. "Yeah?"

Dick picked her up, carrying her in his arms. "Yeah! You beat me fair and square, Babs."

Barbara shook her head. "No... I think... Two-Face doesn't count as two, he probably counts from two halves. And since you... heh, helped me take him down, I guess we both got sixteen and a half?"

Dick raised an eyebrow and then grinned brightly. "You sure you’re good with that?"

"It's… fair."

"You're still better." Dick chuckled. "Two-Face didn’t know what hit him."

Barbara grinned "Nope. Also, we should call on the GCPD to pick up this trash."

Dick nodded. "You wanna do the honours? My hands are a little full."

"They'll recognise my voice..."

She dialled the number quickly, before holding the phone to Dick's mouth. Dick told them where Two face and his goons were, taking Babs back to the cave and setting her down on the couch gently. She took off her cowl, and smiled up at him, looking tired but more relaxed than usual.

"Thanks, Dick."

Dick took off his mask and shrugged. "Anytime, Babs. Today was fun."

"Yeah. It... it was!"

Dick smiled. "You good?"

"Feel a bit dizzy... carry me to bed?"

Dick nodded and picked her up again, carrying her to her bedroom and laying her down, pulling her duvet over her. She blushed, and clung to him, sleepily.

Dick sat down on the edge of the bed, checking her bandages carefully. "You need lots of rest, Babs."

"Mm, my shoulder hurts..." She whined.

Dick nodded. "I know, Babs."

Barbara stretched, and curled up. "Thanks for letting me win..."

Dick chuckled and tucked her in gently. "Anytime. Goodnight, Barbara."


End file.
